Oh my, that has got to be heartbreaking. We deal with so much guilt and frustration anyway because of our preeclampsia, now this! I'm no expert as my preemie's issues were more gastro-related and we're handling his residual issues pretty well, though I do have a sister who dealt with precocious puberty with one of her children (full term baby, not a preemie). You're definitely in the right place now with an endo doc. I'm also really curious about the connection with IUGR... could be a really interesting addition to our research databases (www.preeclampsiaregistry.org) as I had not heard about that before.

I wish some others would jump on here who may have had this experience, but in the meantime, do the best you can with the right doctors. It's all any of us can do; guilt won't help and certainly isn't deserved. I'm sure you're a great mom!

It's probably been 10 years since I posted on this forum. I have a preemie and micro preemie daughters. They are 10 and 11 now. My micropreemie is the 10 year old. She was born at 1 lb 10 ounces. She always did great but was always on the small side. About 2 years ago she started developing signs of puberty while her older sister did not. I ask the pediatrician about this and she said its normal. I asked about her growth too and they had made a mistake that day on the growth chart so she kind of disregarded my question. She had a very big growth spurt between 9 and 10 and almost caught up with her sister. A month after her 10th birthday Layla got her period. I was shocked but didn't think too much of it. I decided to make an appointment for the girls for their regular check up. When the per found out Layla got her period she was very concerned. Layla was only 4' 6". She told me most of her growth was over. My daughter starting crying right there and asked me if she will never really grow anymore. I reassured her she will get just as tall as me (I'm only 5' 1"). The ped said oh no honey you only have an inch or 2 left. She referred us to an endocrinologist. The endo wondered why Layla wasn't referred earlier because she started developing so early. I told her I was upset because I expressed concern about this almost 2 years ago but it was disregarded. She said at least you here now. She told me the growth chart could not be used to * the situation because of the error made on it. This upset me too. Why didn't they correct it the day of the mistake! Any way she took a bone x ray of my daughters hand. The results showed Layla has the bone age of a 12 to 13 year old. If caught earlier I may have been able to give Layla Lupron to stop her puberty and give her more time to grow. Honestly I don't even know if I would have done that. The endo projected Layla's height to be around 4 11 which I would be fine with. I just don't think this is possible. Will she really grow 5 inches after her period started and its regular. I don't want to get a second opinion because I feel like at this point nothing can be done anyway and it has been very difficult seeing my daughter feel like something is wrong with her. Anyway I've been doing a lot of research and have read that a lot of micro preemies, mostly the ones that are iugr, go through an accelerated puberty or precocious puberty. I am surprised I never heard of this and I'm so surprised that after doing a couple hours research I could figure this out while no doctor has ever mentioned it to me. I keep reassuring myself that I would have never opted to treat her with Lupron anyway. i feel so sad for my daughter because right now she's not the tallest in her grade but not shortest either. I fear as the years go by she will start noticing that she is so different as all the girls go through growth spurts and become way taller than her. I'm starting to feel as guilty as I did around the time I had both of them. I stopped measuring her because I don't want her to feel like growing taller is that important. I do feel like she has grown a bit since. I hope she will reach 4 11 or even 4 10. I guess I want to see if anyone has dealt with this with their older micropreemie.